Premier Speedway ‘on its knees’ with track surface issue

Management at Warrnambool’s famous Premier Speedway is “on its knees” as it tries to find a solution to the ongoing track surface dramas as the biggest races of the season rapidly approach.

With its current black clay surface causing numerous headaches, the club is currently actively searching around the region for a replacement.

Across the first three race meetings of the 2023/24 season, the highest Premier Speedway General Manager Michael Parry rated the track surface as just “3/10”.

But with less than a month before the showpiece doubleheader of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic and Australian Sprintcar Championship on January 19-21 and 26-27 respectively, there is not enough time for a new surface to be rolled out for the headline races.

To make matters more challenging, volunteers are still searching for replacement soil.

Parry, plus Premier Speedway President Richard Parkinson and Vice President Robbie Paton provided an update on the ongoing situation in a frank interview with Gavin White on Fitzmedia show Four Wide.

Parkinson admitted support is needed as the club faces a daunting battle.

Grant Anderson stayed out of trouble on a wild Max’s Race at Premier Speedway. Photo Corey Gibson/Premier Speedway

“We want everyone to support us the best they can because we are on our knees currently and cannot be kicked any harder,” he said.

“We really appreciate any support as we try to get back to where we need to be with the racing surface.

“It is very time consuming and having the people available is a challenge but it is one we are up for to get this track back to where it needs to be for the club.

“This has been the most challenging circumstance I have been involved in (but) it is a battle, but a battle we are going to win.”

Premier Speedway has hosted three race meetings so far in 2023/24 but the track struggled to live up to expectations in either of them.

On opening night on November 4, Parry said the track was just a meagre “1 or 2 out of 10”.

A fortnight later for the SRA Sprintcars he believed the surface was “safer and slower but took tyres” so was only a “3”.

The most recent event was Max’s Race on December 16 where there was a high amount of attrition in a dramatic A-Main and the track was rated a “2 out of 10”.

Parry made it clear the black clay will eventually be removed but in the interim will remain when the big stars come to town for the Classic and Aussie title.

It’s a huge 15 night season for the Premier Speedway in 2023/24.

“There have certainly been discussions since Saturday night and December 16 was a decision point,” he said.

“We are actively moving forward. We have been doing a lot of work over the past few months and we have made the decision that the clay will be removed.

“We will continue to work with it in the interim until we have a suitable replacement ready to go and implemented at its earliest convenience.”

Parry said that whilst other venues use black clay, he said Premier Speedway’s surface is struggling to cope with increased pressure of the powerful sprintcars.

“There are a lot of factors but keeping to the point, track shape influences how much pressure (is applied) from the 410 sprintcars,” he said.

“A decade ago they were 650 horsepower, but now they are putting over 900 horsepower which is putting on a lot of stress and extenuating what is happening on the track.”

Parkinson opened up on how challenging the search for suitable soil has been.

“We have not left a stone unturned trying to work with this new surface and it has proved that we just can’t get it to where we need it to be,” he said.

“In the meantime we have worked very hard with a select few of people that have the equipment we need, but that has not been an easy task because we cannot find a good vein of soil  anywhere.

“We need about 3000 cubic metres we need to replace and you might get 1000 here or there.

“We need consistency so the boys have been digging holes somewhere around the district looking for clay.”

Patron said the team is “working our butts off” to find a solution.

“It is a challenging time whether you are a fan, club member or driver and it is blatantly obvious we have struggled to get a suitable surface,” he said.

We pulled the red stuff out because it was doing the same thing. It was either bullet fast or melting every back tyre off.

Racing at Premier Speedway last season.

“We spent a long time on it but this has been worse so we have people out every night trying to work out plans on what we are going to do next.

“We are working our butts off to find a better product but there is no hope of changing something in the next couple of weeks.

“We have to take everything on board and look at the big picture because we need to get it right and cannot get it wrong again.”

The next meeting at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway is Speedweek Sprintcars on New Year’s Day.

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 On the latest podcast, Bruce, PG and Andrew talk about their three motor racing highlights of 2023, and to balance it out… The three lowlights as well, not lowlifes Bruce!